THE FLIGHT FROM THE GERMANS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15453, 4 December 1915, Page 14

THE FLIGHT FROM THE GERMANS.

RUSSIAN SUFFERINGS. SCEXES IX THE EXODUS. (From Stenhen Graham in "The * Times.") KIEFF, . I sit in an immonso waiting-room thronged with people. It is terribly hot and noisy and depressing. Children aro crying everywhere, babies at tho breast, babies on all fonns crawling among bundles, children of all ages— they aro terribly hungry and sleepy. The parents pit about with carcworn_, anxious faces

and strained eyes, or, curling themselves uncouthly about bundles of quilts and clothes, .sleep, snore.' It is a rainy evening, and tho rain beats against tho station windows. Thousands of fugitives aro waiting at every station, platform, barracks, camping ground. Twenty thousand fugitives arrive every day, and they may not stay.

They are pssigfted to provinces in the depths of Russia given freo passages in goods trains, and moved away 60 as not to impedo tho rear of the ltussian Army; also to relieve Ivieff of tho tremendous destitution and to givo tho unfortunate wanderers a bettor chance of starting lifo afresh. They arrive by tho trains, depart by the trains, arrivo in their carts, go on in their carts. From tho banks of tho Dniepr you look down on a never-ending procession of slowly moving cart-tilts, the fugitives 16aving the city, going on. . .

You go into tho country, and find tho carts wandering along tho endless roads and lanes, all tho peasant's goods in a cart, his chairs, his tables, his ikons, a cow tied by a rope and following behind. Ask the peasant where ho is going, as often as not he does not know.

There are splendid faces among tlicso people, broad, calm, potent faces. There aro fine families—a pity io sec them rooted up. What suffering! What moutal tension! Every family group I seo on this great station has the samo expression, that of people who liare given up everything and are standing on tho threshold of new life, all the money thc£ possess eoilocteu in one purse, all their material possessions in tho bundles round about. There are unwontcdly large family groups, with old aunts and grandmothers and grandfathers, people who ordinarily never stir abroad from tlio ie!' 11:40 of home, but now sitting with dishevelled grey hairs and eyes unnaturally cxcited and very sad. Thcro are p' oplo who have (barely slept for fivo days—worn-out, heavy-eyed, silent.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF MISERY. There is unusual kindness among these people, and thero is a. certain amount of official tenderness shown them by police and soldiery. No one grumbles. Every one asks his neighbour's story, tries to calm the childreg, gives food. Tho folk say their prayers and have farthings- with which to buy candles to burn beforo the station altars. Even the Jews, secretive in Jtheir devotions, may bo seen saying their prayers-—at least, such is the aspect of ono venerable Israelite at this moment. Ho has sought out a blank corner of tho white wall, and, with his face to it, his brow on his forearm, mutters to himself. His wifo the while has just made off with two chairs reserved for two officers to have their supper. Even the officers are wounded and are sufferers. All are sufferers. The old Jew reminds mo of those beating their heads on the wal]'at Jerusalem.

Ividff has ono central station and is a vast terminus, with rows of platforms looking, as a rule, very baro and uninhabitable. Now tho trains coming into tho station find these jjlatforms piled as high as themselves with all manner of packing-cases and bundles. As the train slows down tho astonished passengers hear tho great vocal hubbub of the station and sco tho throngs of multi-coloured fugitives. I havo now given up my place in the vast waitinghall and am sitting on a Back on one of tho platforms. Hero ate all the pitiful details of broken-up homes— beds, cradles, chairs, tables, sofas, perambulators. packing-cases, enclosing Singer sewing-machines, tho moneymaking machine of tho miserablo Jewish home, red boxes innumerable and cordcd baskets.

On the other side of the Dniepr and safo from tho Germans stands series of goods trains laden with all imaginable shapes of copper, huge boilers, cisterns, tanks, cylinders, receivers, separators—broken, torn, twisted, rusted, unable to <bo packed together, being so variously shaped. Then also samovars. kettles, agricultural 'machinery, wheels, trucks with nothing but wheels, church bells, trucks with nothing but church bells, little tinkling bells, huge bells that would boom and sound over a city. They are ornamented with representations of Jesus, or of Mother and Child, scrawled over in white chalk or coloured paint with the name of the church and town whence they havo been taken. All silent now, morose-look-ing and wot on tho miserablo goods trucks.

BELLS FOR THE GUNS. I read in a paper that in Germany thero are only enough bells to last three months, but orders have been given to take down all tho church bells, and it is thought that with tho bells captured in Russia they will havo enough copper to last out a year. A new arithmetic t How many shells can be made "from a church bell? Generally spe-ak- | ins, tho Germans havo been 'teaching us manv such propositions in arithmetic. It is sad to see tho loads of riven church bells. There is somo consolation in the trniriloads of German spoils. Many entire German trains are to be seen* mounted on Russian goods trucks, narrow-gaugo carriages with familiar German names inscribed on thpni—Minister. lianuovcr, Essen, Diisscldorf. And glum prisoners in Prussian blues always passing in. ' Near mo sits a Polo •<«»»■> is telling his story. He was owner of a factory under Government supervision near Bialystok. Every implement, the whole stock-in-trade of tho factory, has been removed to Moscow, put into trucks, and taken off by their own steam engine. "What Josses!" moans the Polo, who has come to Kieff to And his children, sent beforehand by themselves. "Oh," says one, "you are in the nature of a Government servant. You will receive compensation." "They cannot compensate me," ho replies. "For one thing, have lost my wife. She died of fright " And ho went on to toll how his wife, who was nervous, fell in a fit when the first German shells began to burst near. Factories, institutions, universities, academies, schools, hospitals, have all been—in the official phrase—evacuated, that is, removed from Western Russia to the interior. Tho Universitv of Warsaw has gone to Rostoff: Urieff University to Yaroslaff. Factories have gone in all directions, and, aided by the Government, have started again. Even far-off Omsk advertises in the newspapers for refugee factories, and will gladly afford them facilities. As

regards tho schools of rogions token by the onomv or threatened, tho children hare to follow to tho now town where it reopens. Consequently parents have littlo choice as to tho plaeo in which tbey would take refuge. Tho education of the children is in Russia the lost thing n family will forego. Not that tho question of tho education of tho children affects many of tho refugees; they aro mostly peasants, and their children liaro no "course" in front of them in any case. \Yith tho peasants aro tho longhaired village priests, looking very woebegone, harried from their parishes. Many clergy have found refugo in tho great monasteries. Tho famous l'et-cherskaya Monastery at Kieff has several thousand guests.. "evacuated" monks and priests, and fugitive peas- ! ants turned pilgrims. On this great settlement, above tho Dniopr, all is holiday. Scores of minstrels and fortune-tellers and beggars beguilo tho crowds; every altar and shriuo gleams with candles; tho music of church services does not die down except at meal times, when multitudes of people sit down at public tables erected in tho. open courtyards of the refectories; at many stalls there are peasants' wares; in tile oaves and galleries whero the old saints and fathers lio in their coffins,, constant crowds. Even Jews turn u 0 at the monasteries seeking food or refuge, and aro not refused.

CALAMITY'S PIRATES. The great calamity, the great confusion, is, however, not without its humorous occasions. Numbers of poor people have made up their minds to get rich through this muddle. Porters refused to help with luggage lor less than five roubles (10s), till tho polico stepped in and fixed a sixpenny tariff. Cabmen asked tremendous fares till they also were brought to reason by the authorities. No one will give change for paper money. Jxits of people have bought railway tickets to re-scll. I wont to the town oflico of tho railway company to get a ticket for Minsk. The broken windows witnessed to tho impatience of tho crowd. Probably less than half tho people leaving Kieff know of thfc town office. It is so in Russia. Nobody knows anything of official arrangements, no notices, nobody to tell you whero to go. Directly von ask a Russian a simple question about ways and means of his own country ho ceases to bo tin ordinary simplo human being and becomes an oracle expressing himself in tho vaguest possible way. In fact, ho has nothing to say. Outside the town office of tho railway they were keeping what ivas callcd in big letters tho Zolotaya otchored, tho golden turn. Anyone who had brought in gold would get his ticket earlier. If I had gold my turn would bo No. 464. j I had none, so my turn was 2712— "Com© next Friday." No chanco of ! leaving Kieff for 10 days. Two students of the University wero busy writing down names, voluntarily, gratuitously. As I was going away, one of tho inevitables in a Russian crowd said to me, 'Do you want- a ticket? I can get you ofte." "How?'' I asked. <£ I'll sell you my turn for 10s; it's coming on in half an hour," said he. Ho had a whole series of turns written down by tho two students a week before. A profitablo business. "All right," said I. "Hero is tho money. Buy my ticket and bring it to my hotel." j A dark Jewess with tears in her i eyes implored mo to buy a ticket from j her. Sho liad decided to remain in , Kieff. I could havo tho ticket " for three roubles extra. "Yesterday's ticket," whispered my man to me. "She has several." "Sorry, auntie, I have already arranged/' said I. Then to my man, "You will bring $o ticket to my hotel, -won't you?" "Yes, barin. You'll give mo an extra shilling for tho journey, won't you ?" "All right, all right."